DtC Newsletter: Creating the Abolition Ethos

DtC Newsletter

May 30, 2016

Oftentimes when I prompt someone to go before his/her school board to at least read the School Board Address One or Two the response is, “My school board will not care.” While that may be true, you have to understand what it is you are actually doing when you go before these people. You are actually teaching them, those behind you, and those who will read the newspaper report of what you said, of how the Bible does not justify force and coercion to advance Christianity. You are creating an ethos. I do this when I go to home school conventions: I articulate a position and then people enter my camp. It builds momentum.

Besides, think about this logically. For the 2017 General Assembly of Virginia I am looking for a Patron to present a bill repealing Virginia’s involvement in the Southern Regional Education Board. So you might respond with, “That bill will never pass.” In which case you are correct: a bill (as far as I can tell) has a zero chance of passing if it is never presented. Put another way, you cannot make a basket unless you shoot the ball.

Further, understand there is value in publicly articulating abolition: people then know the goal and can move towards it. If you have heard me say one thing over and over again it is that we cannot move incrementally towards a goal if we do not know the goal – and Christians are not articulating publicly what our goal is: abolition. On the contrary, we are adopting the humanist’s goal, which is that children belong to man via the civil government. That is why the supposed education “freedom” policies (like vouchers and ESA’s) coming from “conservative” organizations are man-centered. They just further entrench the system that exists. What’s worse it gives Christians the false impression that education policy has moved closer to reflecting biblical principles. In short, vouchers and ESA’s are policy wolves in sheep clothing.

Think about this in one more way. Repentance and exposure to a principle go hand in hand. I believe this is one of the reasons for the law, as articulated in 1 Timothy 1. That is, how do we know what it is we are repenting of if we do not know what the principle is? How can we repent from allowing the civil government to disciple our children if we do not in the first place teach how they have no right to do so? You are articulating publicly, what it is we are to repent of, by stating the biblical principle that the civil government has no right to operate a school system.

You have to sleep, eat, and communicate the abolition message. Abolition is ISSUE NUMBER ONE. Oftentimes education is viewed as a plank within a platform; that is, education is viewed as a single issue alongside abortion, marriage, taxation, and so on. But that is the wrong way to view education. Education is not a plank within a platform – it is the platform itself. That means it drives every issue. The modern conservative failure is due directly to civil government schools. The very liberal issues conservatives fight on the policy level are a direct result of the conservative’s tax dollars being used to finance those very liberal ideas…in civil government schools. Conservatives play Whac-a-mole…we put our own money into the machine just so we can react to what it produces. We must stop putting money into the machine, then unplug it and throw it in the trash.

Contact me. I will help you with these two things:

1. Going before your local central planners (school board) to merely stand there and read a prepared statement.